Thursday, February 28, 2013

Dear Friends of St. James-Santee Parish Episcopal Church, This coming Sunday, we will be voting on the question of affiliation. Although we are a very small group, this is a large decision. Please pray that we will be guided by the Holy Spirit and that we might earnestly seek the mind of Christ. Pray for a spirit of repentance for our participation in the breaking of the Body of Christ in our diocese. We are grieved by the necessity of this decision. Finally, we covet your prayers for our unity as a congregation.

Monday, February 18, 2013

I. Ten Top Reasons Ash Wednesday is Waay Better Than Christmas....10. No braving the malls looking for Lent gifts

9. No pressure to send "Merry Ash Wednesday" cards

8. No explaining why using chi-rho isn't "X-ing Jesus
out" of Lent

7. No need to fight culture wars by
putting "Jesus resisting temptation in the wilderness" displays on
public property

6. No celebrity holiday albums

5. No Ash Wednesday sitcom specials

4. No saccharine email forwards about "the true
meaning" of Ash Wednesday

3. No tacky Ash Wednesday sweaters

2. "Remember you are dust and to dust you shall
return" extremely difficult to use in consumer marketing strategies

1. Nobody ever says, "Ash Wednesday is really all about the
children."

Source: Dave Barnhart

II.Contemporary Approaches to Ash Wednesday

(Adapted from Catholic Cartoon blog)

III. A Song of Lenten Anticipation

(sung to the tune of 'My Favorite Things')

Sackcloth and ashes and days without eating,Mortification and wailing and
weeping,A hair shirt that scratches, a nettle that stings —These are a
few of my favorite things!Penitence, flagellants, memento mori,Spending nights sleeping on
rocks in a quarry,The sound of a cloaked solemn cantor who sings —These
are still more of my favorite things!Tossing and turning and yearning, I’m spurning!Passions aflame like an
ember-day burning,Corpus and carnis and wild drunken
flings —Forsaken are they for my favorite things!When it’s Christmas,When the tree’s lit,When the cards are sent…I
simply remember my favorite things —And then I can’t waaaaaaaaait ’til
Lent!

Friday, February 1, 2013

Every year it seems to creep up and catch me unaware! By way of preparation, here is one of the most complete pieces of music for Ash Wednesday...it has meditative tones as well as sorrow and joy. So very beautiful - it is a setting of Psalm 51 known as the Miserere by Gregorio Allegri. Here is some information about it (including the text). Here is a superb performance by the Choir of Claire College, Cambridge, Timothy Brown, Dir.